Naidu sees opportunity, looks to revive Third Front

With the mid-term public appraisal giving the UPA government its worst ratings and the BJP seen as failing in cornering the government on the issue of corruption, TDP leader Nara Chandrababu Naidu is trying to revive the Third Front again. Prasad Nichenametla reports.

With the mid-term public appraisal giving the UPA government its worst ratings and the BJP seen as failing in cornering the government on the issue of corruption, TDP leader Nara Chandrababu Naidu is trying to revive the Third Front again.

Naidu is on a two-day trip in New Delhi to meet erstwhile United National Progressive Alliance partners - Prakash Karat and D Raja of the Left, Mulayam Singh Yadav of Samajwadi Party and Ajit Singh of RLD, among others, convincing them to join a platform to fight for farmers' issues, apart from corruption.

Naidu, who also met agriculture minister Sharad Pawar to raise the problem of AP farmers, conveyed the situation to the NCP chief.

AIADMK MP M Thambidurai, too, met Naidu, who had campaigned for Jayalalithaa in the recent Tamil Nadu Assembly elections that brought her back to power.

While Left, AIADMK, TDP, BJD, RLD, JD(S) are the parties that are non-BJP and non-Congress, SP, BSP and RJD are extending outside support to the UPA government. With no united voice all these parties are seen as in a disarray.

"There is a need for secular opposition parties to come together in the nation's interest," said CPM politburo member Sitaram Yechury.

"Thanks to apathy of the government, agriculture in the country is heading towards a crisis. Fertile lands worth crores of rupees are being forcefully acquired for a pittance," said Naidu.

"I have invited the Left, SP and RLD to raise a united voice against the injustice meted out to farmers," Naidu told HT, who plans a convention in Godavari, Andhra Pradesh, later this month.